Sugar-producing product.



A'IN'I UFIC.

GEORGE sesame McMULLIQN, or carnage, ILLINOIS. ASSIGNOIL BY MEsNn ASSIGN- MENTS, T0 zaLMoN o. SIMMONS, or KENOSHA, WISCONSIN, ANDREW w. PRESTON, or SWAMBSGDTT, Massncnusr'r'rs, AND BRADLEY w. rALMEB, or nos'ron, MASSA- CHUSETTS, TRUSTEES.

SUGAR-PRODUCING PRODUCT.

No Drawing.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application medium 7, 1909. Serial No. 500,498.

PatentcdOct. 8, 1912.

ing Products, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in sugar producing products, and refers more particularly to an improved sugar producing product derived from sugar-cane.

Among the salient objects of the present.

invention are to provide a product contamingr substantially the entire sugar content in the same uninverted crystallizable condition in which it existed in the cane when ha!- vested; to provide a product which contains the sugar in such condition that it may be dissolved or diffused out almost instantly by water and its extraction accompanied by the extraction of a minimum amount of impu;

rities or constituents of the product other than sugar; to provide a, product which in its finished condition may be preserved under ordinary atmospheric exposures and corulitions indefinitely without substantial deterioration; to provide a product which may he produced in its preservable form at a very low cost, by the use of extremely simple and inexpensive apparatus and with the aid of help of only moderate skill; to provide a product which, after being deprived of sugar, leaves a try-product which is ,in ideal condition for aper making or conversion into other eel nlose products; toprovide a. product which yields up its entire sugar content by an extremely simple and rapid dissolving and dlfldlQlOIl process, thus insuring a maximum yield of sugar While. at the same time the extracted liquor or syrup is in a. purer state than has heretofore been secured; and in general, to provide an improved product of the character referred to.

l')cscril')ing this new product more particularly, and the manner in which I produce the same, I have discovered that sugarcane in its matured, undried condition, stripped and harvested as is usual, may be disintegrated and separated into its chirl structural parts, viz: the pith portion separated from the shell and other woody por: tions, by an extremely simple and rapid process, and that these two separated portions each possess individual and novel characteristics as products.

In practising this invention, I first. shred the sugar-cane into finely divided condition, in which condition the shell and filn'o-vascular portions are in the form of line filaments and the pith in the form of small particles somewhat resembling, wet sawdust. shredding operation [have carried on with great success by the use, of a machine cssentlally like that shown and described in PatcntNo. 8135300 granted to J. W. Hyatt February 20, 1906, but there may be other suitable mcchanism for performing such shrcdding. The novel product of the present invention is this fibrous portion of the sugarcane separated, or concentrated with reference to the pithy portions. The degree of separation or emicentration of the respertive fractions is such as may be attained by Screening under the described conditions, and should be adequate tosecuro the advantages herein pointed out. To cli'ect the separation of the mass, after it has been thus shredded, I resort to ascreening or sitting operation, and to this end I prefer to use ordinary wire screens of suitable mesh; preferably using a series or gang of screens of successively fine: mesh, through which the product is sifted, These sin-cons are agitated 0r Shaken in a well-umlcrstood main nor, and are ordinarily inclined so that the filamentary fiber passes over the screens and is discharged at one end thereof while the pith material passes througlu Where the operation is performed manually, the material may. be. placed upon the screens and the pith particles sifted out in batches much in the manner that thc housewife dredgrcs flour. Commercially, however, I employ a machine so organized that the mixture of shredded material is fed to a series of superposed inclined screens of graded and decreasing size from the uppermost (lOWIlWiLI'llly and these screens being agitated, the pith passes surccssively through the several screens, and the filamentary shreds pass over and discharge at one end of the machine. The two products are then scpa 'atcly collected. The operation of screening may be performed by such a. machine very ra idly and at insignificant expense. The pit 1y and fibrous prod- This ucts thus separated out possess their original proportions of the natural sugar'pnces,

" and, owing to the-uniformity of disintegratremely as'the crystallizable sugar is'the most valu,-'

Fahrenheit, and

' portant that the drying the full sugar content 2 tion, may be passed through a suitable drier and.- be manipulated in such manner while thus passing through the drieras to give up their moisture very rapidly and at an exoderate temperature. .Inasmuch able constituent of 'ditions that the moisture-laden vapor is rial No. 425,614,

set forth and described an apparatus which is characteristically new,

tically as fast .drying it yields its withdrawn from the drying materialtpracas formed. Ina pending application filed by George lV. McMullen, Se-

is suitable for efiiciently and economically drying the products, although other types of apparatus may be used- The material should be dried to a condition of chemical stability, containing less than thirty per cent. of moisture, and preferably to atmospheric dryness containing'say six, to twelve per cent. of moisture. 1

The filamentary or woody fibrous material which is thus separated out forms the sub ject matter of the present invention, and it among others, in As a result of sepathe following respects rating this fibrous material from the pith particles, it is left in a much. more open spongy or permeable condition, and under the described operating conditions the operation of. with drying the mixture without separation. Dried under properly controlled conditions, as-hereinbefore described, it contains substantially the entire natural sugar content uninverted, z. epin crystallizable form, and because of its finely slinedded condition and permeability, and because ofv the effect of the sugar to the dissolving fluid (usually water) almost instantly while at the same time it'gives up but comparativelysmall percentages of the other less soluble constituents which for sugar making purposes are regarded as impurities. This productv contains a smaller percentage of sugar than the pithproduct separated therefrom, and for this reason among others the extraction of the sugar by solution or dif fusion can be more advantageously carried for use in mixing with pulp in the manner in which sulfitefiber 1s filed April 7, 1908, there is.

drying is shortened as compared and particles,

oaonae out than where the twoproducts are treated in mixed "condition. in other words, it isan advantage to treat the relativelyrich and relativelylean products separately;

The residual product s composed largely of cellulose in the form of long filamentary fibers, and. is in ideal c ondition to permit the ultimate fiber to be separated from the intercellular structure by subsequent chemical treatment. It has been amply demonstrated that this filamentary fiber makes a paper which is extremely soft, strcing and susceptible of being bleached as thoroughly as any known product, in fact paper made there:

from is of high commercial quality, and the fiber is so long and strong that it is valuable mferior grades of now used. Where lower grade fiber board or paper is desired, the product in' splendid conditionfor this use with or without previous mechanical treatment.

I claim as my invention:

1.. As a new article of manufacture, the woody fibrous constituents of sugar cane containing its natural sugar content and mechanically shredded into relatively fine filamentaryform and separated or concentrated with reference'to the pith portions of the plant. A

2. As a new article of manufacture, the woodyfibrous constituents of sugar-cane containing substantially its full natural sugar content in uninverted or crystallizable form and separated or concentrated with reference to the pith portions of the plant.-

3i As a new article of manufacture, the

woodv fibrous constituents of sugar-cane,

shredded and containing substantially its full natural sugar content, dried to a condition containing less than thirty per cent. of moisture and separated or concentrated with reference to the pith portions of the plant.

4. As a new article of manufacture, the woody fibrous commmuted and reduced to a mass consist mg chiefly of line excelsior-like filaments condition, imp egnated with sugar in its natural uninvertcd state and practically. un-

contaminated by chemically inverted sugar,

Gopies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents;

Washington, D. G.

dried to permanently stableconstituents of sugar cane, v 

